TONY Bellew’s world title dreams have been put on hold after failing to beat Isaac Chilemba in a final title eliminator.

Bellew knew that victory at the Echo Arena in Liverpool would put him in a position to take on WBC light-heavyweight champion Chad Dawson.

But the 30-year-old Scouser failed to hammer home the advantage he had gained in the early rounds and had to settle for a draw against his rugged opponent from Malawi.

Even Bellew’s usually optimistic promoter Eddie Hearn admitted: “On that performance, maybe he is not ready for a Chad Dawson, so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

“Maybe he needs to build again, learn more and come back better because I don’t think on that performance he may have been able to deal with Dawson.”

The result is a bitter blow for Bellew whose only defeat came at the hands of Nathan Cleverly in a bid to relieve the Welshman of his WBO title in 2011. Bellew was bitterly disappointed with the draw after one judge scored it 116-112 for Chilemba, another 116-115 for Bellew and the third had it level at 114-114.
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Good to see a promoter being honest/realistic about one of his boxers.

Never seemed Chilemba before, but he looked awkard and hard to look good against. That's no excuse though because against guys like that you should still be winning the rounds even if you look bad, and Bellew didn't enough of the rounds, especially in the second half of the fight.

116-115? Seriously? This guy scored 3 10-10 rounds in a title eliminator fight?

I would like to know how the BBC selected judges for this because if you look at this judges record he has scored 2 or 3 10-10 rounds in every major fight he has done.

The guy has scored at least 2 10-10 rounds in the last 5 fights he did that went the distance including 119-111 cards in Klitschko/Chisora and Agbekpo/Melendez.

You wonder how bad decisions happen in Europe? Well it happens when idiots like the guys at the BBc review the history of this judge and in spite of all the evidence to the contrary deem him fit to judge a fight with major implications.